If this blog post sounds familiar, it is because you have likely heard us say this before. However, we think it bears repeating.

We want to help you make the most of policyIQ.

As with any product that is continuously evolving, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the new possibilities that are available within the policyIQ application. Maybe you didn’t even know that every upgrade and every new feature developed is rolled out to all of our clients automatically at no additional cost.

If you implemented policyIQ last year, there are already new features that might save time or allow you to create a solution for your team that you haven’t thought about yet.

If you implemented policyIQ more than five years ago and have not revisited the way that the application is configured, we need to talk.

What does that expert review and guidance cost you? An hour of your time. That’s it. For real. We know your time is valuable, but an hour of your time with one of our policyIQ implementation specialists can save you far more time in the long run.

Contact us today – and ask to set up a meeting with a policyIQ implementation specialist to talk about the way that you are using policyIQ!

Many organizations have used policyIQ for their Policy Management needs, and each client of ours has their own unique needs and for providing transparent and accessible policies to their users, public website, auditors, or other audience type. However, the process is largely the same, regardless of the unique needs.

In nearly all cases, the policy content is created in policyIQ, reviewed, approved, and then published. Making that content available is where the differences come in to play. There are a few options for doing so:

A shared, Read-only account:

Create a Read-only user account in your policyIQ site (which is free, by the way), and apply the Read-only account as a viewer only on all applicable pages in your site. Be sure to make sure that this account also has view access to the necessary folders, as well.

Then, share the Read-only account credentials with your user base. Once logged in, the policyIQ view this user will have is a scaled down look – just folders and policy content, in this case. Because the very nature of the account is Read-only, there is minimal risk in sharing the credentials with a large group of people.

A shared, Read-only account accessed via policyIQ Reader:

A similar process to the one above, but with a different look to the program and no login needs.

After creating the Read-only user profile and applying the user to security where necessary, edit the user profile. Under the “required” tab of the Edit User window, scroll to the bottom to find a unique link called “policyIQ Reader“. This hyperlink can be placed anywhere you like: bookmarked in your browser, stored on your desktop, placed in a shared network drive, or even on your intranet. Once a location is selected, anyone that clicks the link will gain instant, read-only access to your policyIQ site. No login required, and the “reader” look – a straightforward, no nonsense look at content, which is displayed in the table area to the right instead of a separate window, as seen below.

Individual Read-only accounts:

Create an individual Read-only account per-user, which allows for greater flexibility in terms of seeing policies that are applicable to certain divisions, but not others. Perhaps your finance and accounting folks have policies and procedures that apply to them, but not to the vast majority of other employees. Creating separate accounts for everyone ensures the user experience in the product is directly related to their role.

Individual policies accessed from an outside source:

Some of our clients choose to have their policies accessed from their primary company website. In this case, the policyIQ pass-through link is ideal: eliminate login needs, access individual policies, and don’t display the main policyIQ site from which the policies were created. Instead, display only the pages themselves.

Create a primary Read-only user account, and again add it to the view security on all applicable pages. Now, view a page of your choice that is published. A the very bottom, the page ID sits, and contains a link. Click the link to open a small window that contains the policyIQ Passthrough link . Copy and paste this link to the destination of your choice. Selecting this link from an outside source will open the policy page only, and not require a login to the system.

Next steps:

Did you know policyIQ also handles Policy Sign-offs, as well? It’s a simple process at a minimal cost. Add Standard Users to your site in bulk (50 to over 10,000+) to completely revamp the way your organization automates creating, approving and storing certifications and sign-offs.

Does something here sound like it might be right for you? If so, let’s talk about it! Scheduling a half hour with a policyIQ expert on our team is not only free of charge, but will pay dividends moving forward as the management of your processes becomes easier by the day. Many adjustments to existing sites take minutes to change, and new sites are even simpler! Contact us at Support@policyIQ.com or 412-263-3330 to begin.

The policyIQ team joined our RGP colleagues at the Institute of Internal Auditors’ 2017 General Audit Management (GAM) Conference in Orlando, Florida on March 20th-22nd. Once again, this was a great event packed with learning and networking opportunities!

Representatives from RGP included:

The conference was attended by more than a thousand audit professionals and we were only able to speak to about 200 of them. If we didn’t get to have a conversation with you, here’s what might have transpired had we connected:

The conference sessions inspired some great discussions!

We carried on the conversations started by the keynote speakers and others. We talked about the hats that auditors are asked to wear, the importance of the internal audit function and profession, and the value of independence, maintaining integrity and having the courage to do the right thing against, sometimes, great personal risk. With integrity being among the core values at RGP and 20+ years’ experience serving as a professional services firm in this field, we are charged by discussions in this vein and by the opportunity to encourage our clients and peers in the audit profession.

We talked about how the times have changed. Once upon a time, we recognized that not all companies were performing regular risk assessments and we were encouraging them to get started with annual risk assessments. In the last few years, we see that the demands of business, technology, competition, culture and so many more are requiring companies to be more nimble and to both assess and respond to risk on a continuous basis. We participated in discussions around what it takes to be prepared and resilient in these times and how RGP’s Data Solutions practice can help companies to better collect, manage, secure and leverage their data.

Cyber security was a hot topic again this year! We discussed the struggles that some companies experience in identifying and developing the necessary expertise to address the present and growing need to address cyber security. We heard that companies are looking across various functions to address their security concerns. RGP’s maturity in integrated solutions, leveraging expertise across information security, audit, data solutions, process improvement (and more) allows us to be responsive, provide a high quality service and to tailor comprehensive solutions to each client’s needs.

We shared our story…how RGP and policyIQ stand out from the pack.

Another theme in our conversations with other professionals at GAM: how RGP is different. There’s certainly no shortage of consulting firms and technology providers at these things, right? The vendor hall can be a little bit intimidating for the introverts among us. At the RGP booth and throughout the conference, we worked to jump quickly to how we at RGP and our GRC Technology are different from most others.

Our consultants have 10-20 years’ experience. They are true subject matter experts who can lead your initiative or project and work alongside your team with valuable knowledge to share and teach. Rather than the checklist approach, our consultants build tailored solutions and collaborative partnerships. Remember the mention of integrity being a core value? We have a track record of long-term, trusted partnerships, evidenced by a 100% retention rate of our top 50 clients.

RGP also has 70+ offices around the globe—these are our offices, not affiliates. This means our people, our culture, and our standards; therefore, we deliver consistently high quality results worldwide.

And our GRC technology, policyIQ, packs a powerful punch in a nimble and affordable, centrally accessible platform. We serve companies from risk assessment through compliance initiatives, testing, reporting of findings and remediation like many other enterprise GRC tools. We also provide solutions for ASC 606 contract review, lease data capture, contract administration, policy management, automation of evidence request and collection, 302 certifications, legal and data room, support for integration with mergers and acquisitions, account reconciliation management and many more ALL IN ONE TOOL. It’s a matter of security configuration (part of the information governance planning that we guide you through as a matter of course at no additional charge). People find it amazing that they can do so much in one easy to use tool.

What’s more, a solution or initiative can be implemented in policyIQ in 4-6 weeks—not months or years, like most other products. And policyIQ is so easy to setup and use that NO IT RESOURCES ARE REQUIRED. We like to include and engage IT in the early conversations because a company can better leverage policyIQ for various departments and initiatives when the IT department includes it among their suite of solutions for their stakeholders. (Pssst—it saves time and money for IT departments, too!)

Next year, we’re going to have the biggest booth and the loudest parties!

Just kidding. You know, I often start off feeling a little bit small at these huge conferences. We don’t have the biggest booth or the most extravagant events to woo attendees to come and visit with us. (Although we heard from a bunch of folks that we did have the best swag this year with our super cool phone charger pens.)

Still, every year, I leave energized!

We deliver excellence! We have amazing clients and valuable partnerships and we build on them every year. I don’t have to feel pressure to be bigger and flashier to land sales. The truth of who we are and what we have to offer at RGP holds tremendous value, builds solid relationships and is a great story to share.

If we didn’t get to shake hands at GAM or elsewhere, yet, and you’d like to hear the good news first-hand, please reach out to any of us. We’d love to buy you a cup of coffee and learn about your business issues that we’ll help to remedy.

In this time of gratitude, we give thanks for you, our policyIQ community. We value not only your business, but we appreciate your confidence in us. We enjoy the opportunity to work with you to continuously improve the policyIQ product and to create new solutions for your business.

Counting you among our clients is something for which we are especially grateful. On behalf of all of us at policyIQ, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Users know that policyIQ is ultra-flexible, and that explains why so many different clients have purchased our software.

The needs for each and every industry are unique, and vary client to client. policyIQ offers unmatched flexibility to help meet these requirements, complete with an Account Management and Customer Support team that is ranked at a near perfect satisfaction ranking (2015 survey).

Customize templates to create content that looks familiar to you, and captures information that you’ll want to report on later. Populate your content, either piece by piece or in bulk from an Excel spreadsheet. Organize your content into folders, just as you would on a network drive. Tailor security to give read, write and approve access to your content. Set up your sites’ users with unique accounts, Dashboards, and other great features. Before you know it, you’re off and running…and policyIQ immediately makes your life a lot easier!

Not only can policyIQ be the solution for a particular business need, it can also serve a variety of needs within one business. This means less money spent on multiple software products, and more time making policyIQ your go-to cloud solution for SOX, Audit, Sign-offs, Policy Management, Conflict Minerals Compliance, and many other compliance and certification management processes.

Some long time policyIQ users have even left a position within one industry and repurchased policyIQ when they settle in to another. Now, that’s flexibility!

If you’ve been considering giving policyIQ a look, contact our team to sign up for a FREE custom demonstration with a member of our Account Management team. They’ll answer your questions, and determine if policyIQ is the right fit for your needs. If it looks like a good match, we’ll set you up with a free, no-obligation trial site for 30 days. Try it for yourself!

Maybe it was becoming a mom that enabled me to better recognize that acknowledgement of a person’s effort is invaluable for trust and relationship building. It seems like a no-brainer, as a parent, that you want to encourage your little people to have confidence and enthusiastically try new things and accomplish new feats.

Are you often told that you’re doing a great job—by your peers, clients, or boss? When the store clerk or waiter hands you your receipt and circles the address on the bottom where you can go to share your feedback, do you? Do you regularly highlight great work, progress, or effort of the people that you encounter in the workplace—colleagues, stakeholders, vendors?

I don’t always remember or make time to do it either.

But I want to.

Sometimes, when I have, the recipient is surprised and even tells me how unusual it is. Maybe this is why I’m struck by the fact that our policyIQ Support Team consistently receives compliments and messages of “thanks” from our clients:

Now, consider how often you could–with sincerity–pay such compliments to your other software providers?

You worked for months (years for some), listening to promises from several different people who kept handing you off and never addressing your concerns. You found yourself with more time and money invested than you care to admit and you have grown to look at all software providers with skepticism (if not disgust).

Does this sound familiar?

I hear you. Your frustration was echoed by countless people that I spoke with at a national conference in March. Because a number of people felt compelled to share their horror stories about other providers with me, I got comfortable jumping quickly to the things that make us different than the typical software company:

RGP is NOT a software company! Integrity is at the core of our firm. We want to create great relationships and serve you so impressively that, when you need a consultant, you already know the quality that you can expect from us.

We don’t have a huge policyIQ booth at conferences and our software does not have the huge price-tag required to pay for that presence (policyIQ starts at <$5k/year).

We don’t sell multiple modules or products and aim to upsell you. policyIQ really does accommodate multiple business areas and needs in one affordable tool.

Our goal is to solve for your information, content, process, and workflow challenges across the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) space, not to land a sale.

Your sales person does not make commission or hand you off to an implementation team that’s unaware of promises made during the sales process—we walk alongside you the whole way and help to tailor the implementation to your organization’s needs.

Our product does what we tell you it does (and we answer truthfully if you ask us about something we don’t do or plan to develop).

We have a support team that truly cares to give you excellent and timely service.

We think of our clients as part of our community with whom we will have a long partnership. We listen to your needs, plans, wishes and heartaches and work continuously to problem solve with you.